A little update this time :-)

After my last mammoth post, a smaller update this time. I worked on Portrait of Ophelia this last week as part of the HAED ufo/swip SAL. I've been itching to get back to her, even if all I am stitching is black, black and more black! I managed to get a fair bit done, so am now 6 columns down and just 2 away from the page finish. Yay!

So back to Ice Wind this week for the SK SAL. I'm aiming for a page finish this week so that I am on track to finish her in time.

I've decided not to join in the themed SAL next week as it is a lethal one - the new start SAL! I so do not need another new start! So, I will use next week to make sure that I get my page on Ice Wind done, and will go back to Ophelia to get her page done too.

well, I am a busy blogger :-)

I must be a bit like a bus - nothing for ages then loads come along together :-D Lots of things have been happening for a change!

First my update for Curl Up after the July SAL. I have, at last, got through the worst of the decanter - whoop whoop! I can honestly say it was absolutely painful to stitch and I'm glad it's done. It took sooooo long to get through those columns. But now he is 5 columns done. Still nowhere near being on target but hopefully progress will be a bit faster now.

So now I am going back to Ophelia. She's been shouting at me for at least a week so once I had finished with Curl Up she went right back on the frame. I'm still stitching the first page, so lots and lots of black with the odd splash of dark green and dark grey!

I finally invested in a laying tool (one that sits on your finger) and I think it has helped with my tension which I was struggling with on the dark colours. I'm enjoying trying it out. I thought that it would be really annoying sat on your finger but tbh once it's been on for a few minutes, you don't even notice it.

I submitted my Porthole finish for the HAED reward program this week - such a fabulous and extremely generous scheme. You finish a HAED, send your pictures to Michele and she sends you a free chart! How amazing is that! I chose QS Dahlia by Hannah Lynn. Don't you just love those fizzy summer colours?

And, I won in the Fairy Day 2011 draw! I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened that thread and saw my name! I was expecting to congratulate the winners but I had won!!!! I got to chose a QS as my prize :-D I was trying to choose between Tag Alongs by Hannah Lynn and the QS of Amethyst Moon by Nene Thomas BUT the winner was:

QS Moonglow by Hannah Lynn!

I just love the tat on her back and the colours - purple of course and the colours in the moon are so cute!

Finally, it's my blogging birthday today! One whole year already since my first blog post :-D Thank you so much for reading my blog and here's to another stitchy year!

So that's it! More excitement than I can handle in a week that's for sure lol

And now for something completely different ...

What with the girls' Easter holidays from school and the extra long Bank Holiday weekend for the Royal Wedding and DH going off to Italy for training before he starts his new job in Saudi, it's been a couple of weeks since I was here last. I have been stitching ... honest gov! But I have also been doing something else - my completely different - running.

I have long battled with self-confidence and depression and one thing the doctor always said was "do something for yourself, it will help". Well yeah whatever I thought and promptly ignored her. Then, I set up my little stitching corner and lost myself in lots and lots of tiny crosses. I carried on doing this for a long time, but the problems never quite went away. Then I realised, I really needed to get up and do something else for me ... something that was outside the house, where there was no "mum! I need a drink!" or "muuuuum, I'm hungry"! So 10 weeks ago, I started running around the footpath on the estate.

To start with, I could just about manage to run the distance of 3 lampposts. I managed to get round 2.5K doing this but would be just flattened afterwards. So my running buddy and I decided we needed to be told what we needed to do, both being running novices and also having, in a complete moment of madness, signed up the 5K Race for Life. Couch 2 5K was the answer and, although it has been a struggle, in the space of 7 weeks I have gone from being able to run for a minute, to running (in the loosest sense of the word) for 25 minutes at a time.

We run 3 times a week - even when we don't feel like it lol! With just 2 weeks of the training programme left that time will gradually be built up to 30 minutes and the elusive 5K! So, has it helped with the 'me' problems? I don't know yet ... somedays my doubts kick in and I struggle (like today when I actually gave up because I just couldn't run any longer) but there is a great sense of "yay, I've done it!" when you finish. I haven't lost any weight yet, which of course would be fab, but I am definitely more toned and fitter than when I started! And yes, I am ever so slightly hooked :-) So, I'll carry on.

Anyway, back to my first love, my stitching :-D After kitting up and gridding Ophelia I started her last Tuesday. Two and a bit columns in and I am going insane already. It's just black, black and more black! I don't mind block stitching but I know that I stitch slower with black, trying to ensure that my coverage is good. On 28ct it looks patchy when under a daylight bulb and close up but once you get a normal distance away, it looks good. Here is progress so far, as you see, not much.

Portrait of Ophelia (c) JBG and HAED

So as that black is driving me crazy, I'm going to swap projects this week .. to my Wall. Talk about one extreme to the other lol! I've not stitched on Dragon Charmer in what seems like forever but seeing her finished by another stitcher on the BB recently has put her in mind. No doubt my next post will be about how much the confetti is driving me mad - but lets face it, us stitchers are never happy are we?! Here she is as I left her last (threads all over the place) I think in October of last year. Stitched on 28ct light blue jobelan, one over one, full crosses.

Dragon Charmer (c) Josephine Wall and HAED

Finally, FF150. I stitched on her for a bit for the themed SAL last week but starting Ophelia got in the way. I have managed to make good progress on her though so here she is. Not sure about the green on her face, it looks a lot brighter in real life but I'll trust the charting and go with it!

FF150 (c) JBG and HAED

Lastly in an effort to clear away some cobwebs, I've changed my online profile pic. The old one was taken last April and has been there far too long. The new one was taken on our 10th wedding anniversary last year at 15 (Jamie Oliver's restaurant). I've put a photo filter over it to jazz it up a bit because it was a bit grainy. How long will this one be around for I wonder?

At last!

.. the gorgeous Ophelia by JBG has been released! I requested her a while ago (it seems like forever) and yesterday she arrived. And during sale time too! :-D Needless to say, she jumped straight into my basket, I think within 10 minutes of her hitting the HAED site lol.

Now I am just debating fabric choices for her. I did think I might try 32ct but my common sense eventually kicked in and I think I will stick with the 28ct. My coverage is great on 28ct, except for the usual black. There are occasional spots of fabby showing through. Not too bad in small patches, but Ophelia has 47,088 stitches in black, and a fair few of those are on the first page which is almost entirely black! I usually stitch on bone jobelan, but this time I am thinking something slightly darker like tan or english rose or prairie grain. Hopefully with a slightly darker fabby behind any show through will be less noticable.

Back to my current wip, FF150. This is the supercute JBG HAED released for their Japan fundraiser. Here she is 5 columns done, so just over half a page. I wouldn't normally post until I had a complete page, but it's been a while!

FF150 as at 15 April 2011

Don't you just love that eye? JBG always does good eye!